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Tank:GB19 Sherman Firefly
As Britain struggled to develop tanks capable of equaling the superior German panzers, the decision was made to convert existing stocks of M4 Sherman tanks into a more powerful variant. In late August 1943, the British began developing a variant of the Sherman mounting the 17 pounder anti-tank gun. The so-called Sherman Firefly featured a long-barreled 17-pdr gun that was much more effective than the original 75 mm gun, capable of penetrating a Tiger I's frontal armour at a distance of 1,000 metres using regular ammunition. In order to successfully mount the 17-pdr gun into the turret, various modifications had to be made, such as replacing gun mantlet, moving wireless set to armoured box at rear of turret, installing loaders hatch on turret roof and welding left side pistol port shut. The first several months worth of Fireflies were adapted from M4A4 tanks, designated Sherman V by the British, but soon the viability of other models was explored. By May 1944, the M4 variant, or Sherman I, was being converted in modest numbers. The Sherman VC and IC variants were easily distinguished by their lower hulls; the VC having a riveted lower glacis with a curved shape while the IC has a welded and angled lower glacis. The IC Hybrid can be distinguished by its upper cast hull, giving it a distinctive curved look. Tanks rearmed with the 17-pdr gun were given the suffix C, with the resulting units being designated Sherman VC, IC and IC Hybrid. Of the 600 Fireflies in service by D-Day, the vast majority were VCs, but they were eventually outnumbered two-to-one by Sherman ICs. A total of 2,139 Firefly tanks were built by February 1945. |HistoricalGallery= Sherman Firefly.jpg Sherman IC Hybrid in Normandy during Operation Overlord Sherman Firefly (2).jpg Abandoned Sherman VC being inspected by German crews following the Battle of Villers-Bocage in June 1944 Sherman Firefly (3).jpg Sherman Firefly of the Irish Guards during Operation Market Garden on 17 September 1944 Sherman Firefly (4).png Sherman IC (foreground) & IC Hybrids of the Polish 2nd Armoured Division in Italy at the end of the war. The camouflage on the gun barrel was to disguise its length Sherman Firefly (5).jpg Sherman IC Hybrid of 11th Armoured Division advancing towards Gemert in Holland on 26 September 1944 Sherman Firefly (6).jpg Sherman VC of 22nd Armoured Brigade, 7th Armoured Division on Gold Beach on 7 June 1944 Sherman Firefly (7).jpg Sherman IC Hybrid in Namur, Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge Sherman Firefly (8).jpg Sherman IC Hybrid of the 2nd Irish Guards in Northwestern Europe on 31 August 1944 |HistAcc= Three different Sherman models were converted to Fireflies: the M4, M4 Composite and M4A4. The British designated them as Sherman I, Sherman I Hybrid and Sherman V respectively. The Firefly depicted is a converted M4 Composite/Sherman I Hybrid, or Sherman IC Hybrid, judging by its rounded cast front welded to the hull. The most commonly converted tank was the M4A4/Sherman V, which had a Chrysler A57 Multibank engine and a different welded and lengthened hull with sharp edges. *Sherman Fireflies normally did not mount the M2 Browning machine gun on the turret. |Ref_references= |Ref_sources= |Ref_links= }}